Bad Company
by Sir Archibald
Summary: A young house elf has a fate most unimaginable, one that will forever darken his days with naught but pain. The only good to come of this is a friendship like no other. Alas, his friend is an unlikely one of evil virtues. How will the young house elf come about his path of future laid afore him? What will he chose?
1. Prologue

**Bad Company**

_A/N- dear viewers, after reading the Harry Potter series I have found myself obsessing over house elves. They are so mysterious and enchanting in their own bewitching ways. That is why this story will be dedicated to all the house elves knowing that, "a person is a person no matter how small." House elves are people too. _

**Prologue: _Before the Storm_**

The scent of lavender wafted through the room with such delicate ease. Soap suds bubbled and boiled in the heat of the water that compelled them. The foaming, hot sea sparkled and dazzled a tint of white in the dim candle lights that forsook the silhouettes in the room. It had been after supper in the school of Hogwarts, and the house elves were bustling to clean the dishes.

"What lousy _little_-" muttered a small elf beneath his breath, he produced a rough break in his sentence realizing those around him were listening. Now silently exclaiming oaths of such calamity, he presumed his steamy anger. "-_vermin_!"

The small elf cleansed each dirty dish with a fiery passion. He did love to clean, and he cleaned hastily as well. All the dishes were splendidly spotless in only a matter of minutes. There seemed to be nothing else to be done, with so, the small elf chose to retire for the night. Alas, the other elves had something else for him in mind.

"Klaus!" They cried out his name like hungry crows, "clean the tables!"

Klaus, the small elf, bequeathed a sigh of irrational virtue and responded cordially to the request. Taking a candle, the elf ambled into the great hall. With a wet towel, he swabbed the tables with a rather rash fashion.

"Dirty, dirty," he said, shaking his small head after examining the rest of the impeccably long table he must sanitize.

A sudden bizarre image had caught his large, round eyes. He turned about to find a light in the far corner of the room. Journeying to this light, he found a young boy seated at a table with a book in his hand. The boy devoured each page with his own eyes as he stared intently at the book, naught else in the room captivated him.

"The audacity!" Klaus had shouted glaring upon the boy with a heated surprise. "What are you doing here? Go back to your common room this _instant_!"

A moment had passed, a dark breath had been exhaled by time itself. It took a few mere seconds for the boy to visualize the elf standing in front of him, and to perceive the words he has spoken to him. Placing down the book gently, his head rotated a few good degrees to partake in the vision of Klaus. He was seemingly interested by the house elf who stood before him.

"I have never seen a house elf in the four years I have stayed within these grey walls. Do tell me, what is your name dear elf?"

The small elf had been utterly shocked of the politeness and fine words the boy had used. Truly, he had not spoken to a student, but he would least suspect them to have a speech so splendid.

"Klaus, and what would your name be, dear boy?"

As before, the boy took a another moment afore answering the inquiry. A treacherous, wicked smile had curved into his profound lips as he produced his words. There was a darkness forming in his eyes like a brewing storm upon a clear night. Truly, an evil resonance had procured from the child, that of an evil so luridly abhorred.

"My name is Tom Riddle."


	2. Chapter 1

**Bad Company**

**Chapter I; _A Wind In Turmoil_ **

Young Tom Riddle sat sophisticatedly in his common room, a book in hand once more, he tended to always read. It was past midnight, yet not ere long afore the was sun to dawn crimson upon the horizon, someone was to die this coming nightfall. A nebulous shadow creeped through the kindling hearth, ailing a dark calamity to Tom's reading light. Tilting his head slightly upwards, he replaced his view of the book to the room itself. He found a familiar house elf slinking around, cleaning, as it seemed to be.

"Klaus!" He exclaimed, quite shocked at the appearance of the young elf, "what may be your purpose here this fine morn?"

The house elf nimbly looked thereon Tom with an expression of utmost rash distaste. He seemed not to fancy the student, Mister Riddle was too peachy for his own good.

"Pah! I'm cleaning you dingy bird! How else do you think the castle looks so splendid?" Retorted Klaus with sour words of tart choice. He did not like this Tom Riddle, no pupil had ever called him by his name. Indeed, no student had ever spoken a phrase nor seen a glimpse of the timid elf. What bestows this boy to do so? The child's seemingly friendliness was rather unheard of amidst the other children, yet, he recompensed compassion and empathy to dear, little Klaus. _Why_? Only Master Riddle can tell.

"My, my, such _marvelous_ attitude! What upsets you, dear Klaus? You can speak to me what you wish, I would very much like to listen."

Klaus had been clearly perturbed by such a sentence. "Nothing! I do not need a foolish child's condolences! Good riddance! And go to bed for _once_!"

There was a very visual shock fixated in the boy's stormy eyes, a hurt had suppressed the glee in his emotion. Truly, empathy was not used to describe the child, alas, for it was the only inscription upon his face. How peculiar, indeed. Tom then spoke in a tragically sorrowful tone to the elf, "You have lost someone? Do you not need comfort nor another to confide in?"

At these words, the house elf's eyes had widened. He turned away from Tom, facing the fireplace. The fire seemed to cackle at his state, whispering minuscule jeers upon him. In Klaus' hands was a rag that he ringed with his tiny fingers anxiously. A shiver ran throughout his entire body and he wavered slightly in his stance, seemingly overtook with the emotion of heart stricken-ing grief.

"_No_," replied Klaus ever so quietly as he drifted through mild words, "not anyone important, anyway..."


End file.
